, 1887-09-17

time to think OF pursuing the runaway.
In the darkness hiding was SO easy that
it would be losing time, and, besides, the
platoon was in a great hurry to reach the
g~lassworks.
After calling him once again, the SOL
diers resumed their march, n soon the
sound of their footsteps was the only
noise breaking the stiffness of the night.
The young soldier had not deserted.
While his companions were calling him
he was lying unconscious at the foot of
the declivity, across the top of which the
highway ran.
John was thunderstruck when, On re-
gaining his senses, he found himself lying
there, benumbed and covered with mud.
How had he slippedp How had he rolled
down there?
He listened, but heard no sound. His
comrades must not nave seen him fall.
He remembered that he had been a
little way behind the others, and reflected
that in the face of so binding a rain it
was quite possible that his fall might
have passed unnoticed.
He tried to get up, but In atrocious
pain seemed to pin him to the earth.
His left leg was like a bar of lead, and at
every motion it caused him to cry out
aloud.
Ahtil HC ~ civ OL llLLhLLlk
that he was wounded and all alone in that
blar!; country. Were they going to aban-
don linn there?
He had raised himself upon one elbow,
but let himself fall back heavily. His
shake had caught on to something dur
ing his fall, leaving him bareheaded to
the cold rain, which drenched his short,
curly, fair hair, of which he was SO
proud. Poor Johnl Who would have
recognized in the unfortunate being
stretched at full length in the mud the
dainty little soldier, always SO Hastily
%primped up, and who invariably caught
the eyes of all the women on the prone
made?
He suffered so atrociously that he did
not nav courage enough to examine
himself and try to find out the extent of
his injury. His whole left leg felt as if
it had been ground up in a mill. And,
still, it might not be 80 serious. He re-
membered that, once upon a time, he had
felt that same feeling of general sore
ness, caused by a violent blow from a
stick. 1t might not amount to anything,
and yet he could not remain there, lying
in the mud and water, shivering with
cold. He would eventually go to sleep,
and the mex morning they would find
him there, deadi He did not wish to
die! What! be found there, in the mud,
like a dead dog. r = y Cost what it
may he had to get back to the road and
wait till some one came along. In short,
it was not such a great undertaking, only
ten meters to gol
What a torture those ten meters were
TO him, as with the aid of trees, roots and
rocks, dragging his lifeless leg along, he
tried to get up to the road at the top of
the slope. Twenty times he came near
giving up twenty times he was on the
point of lying where he was and wait
even for deathl But his youth rebelled
against the idea; love of life seemed to
urge him on, and at length he reached
the road. His strength was failing fast,
and all he could hope for now was that
somebody might come along before it was
too late.
Time dragged on 30 heavily for the
wretched man that seconds seemed to
him eJernities.
Fever kept him awake, his feet were
frozen, his head as If on fire, all his body
shaking with a shiver which caused in
sufferable witches to run through his
leg. He no longer had strength enough
to cry out, n he could only give vent
to his sufferings in low means.
All of a sudden, while under the in
huence of a kind of nightmare, he heard
voices singing. He listened. 1t was sal
walton, it was life, because they were
coming his way. Oh but how slow they
seemed to walk At last, he could dis
tinguish in the darkness the forms of five
men, walking arm in arm. When within
a few steps o; where John lay, they stop
ped singing. So much the better, they
would hear him call. When he saw them
quite near, he cried out:
"HelpI Helpl''
The men stopped.
"Helpl' cried he again.
The astonished men vent up to him,
and one of them noticing his uniform, ex-
claimed: "Hellol it is one of those soldier
hounds that has got his dose"
Then another, who carried q pickax,
cried out: '.Well, let's finish him."
With these words he raised the tool.
On hearing that well known voice John
had cried out wildly, "Peterl''
The pickax had fallen, however. The
soldiers exclamation had caused the
blow to deviate; nevertheless the point of
the pickax struck the helpless soldier,
opening a gaping wound in his side.
The man, terrified by that name-his
name-called out 80 suddenly in such a
spot, dared not bend over the unfor-
tunate soldier who had fallen back faint
ing to the earth. His surprised COM
panions did not quite understand, but
their instinct told them that something
horrible was going on. AT last Peter
knelt down, and gently taking hold of
the soldiers head with his trembling
hands, he turned the face so as to get a
look at the features.
at is Johnl'
These words came hoarsely from out
his painting breast. Had the ground
opened in front of him it would not have
stupefied him SO much as did the sight of
that bleeding man lying there in the road
before him.
Then he seemed to come to himself
again; he rapidly passed his hand over
his brow, and then, with the most touch
ing care, he raised the body in his her
culesn arms. As he was about to arise
to his feet, his companions stepped up as
if to assist him, when, with a look, he
stopped them, saying in a hoarse voice:
Il forbid any one to touch himl"
And, paying no more attention to
thew no eta1Bnl 30 ,r;tI bic ho,rv A,,r